


maybe, just maybe

by ForeverDoesntExist



Series: You and Me [1]
Category: Figure Skating RPF, Sports RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pointless, Referenced Yuzuvier, crackish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 04:09:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19265602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForeverDoesntExist/pseuds/ForeverDoesntExist
Summary: Shoma has no idea why Nathan is even talking to him.Since when does he need an excuse, though?





	maybe, just maybe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mushroom_scientist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mushroom_scientist/gifts).



> Disclaimer: All the characters are purely fictional, and nothing on this story represents their real opinions. I hope you enjoy.

 

* * *

 

 

“Shoma?”

He was tired, dying and in need of his comfortable sneakers. He didn’t have the strength to even stand upright anymore. People called for him in every direction, and he wasn’t even to be part of the podium. Not after that skate. He knew it and everyone and their mother knew it.

Why not just let him wallow in his misery in peace?

God, he missed having Yuzuru as a shield for this boring stuff. Where the fuck was he anyway? The little shit was nowhere to be seen and he was right after the Italian kid.

“Man, your program was so awesome and like…it was so good and-”

That wasn’t someone from the media. He could recognize that American accent from a mile away, except he never expected it to be directed at him. Shoma instantly turned around and without a doubt, the American skater was enthusiastically describing his won free skate to him. Was it him or the younger one was slightly jumping up and down on his skates?

“I just had to tell you that I thought it was perfect…”

Point number one: Shoma’s program was not perfect. It was something but perfect. He had barely landed half of his jumps and his scores had been a mess. Before going into the free he had already known he wouldn’t get to that podium, not from his sixth place after the short.

Number two: He wanted to go home and rest, his droopy eyes were becoming heavier and heavier by the second. Shoma could feel himself falling asleep during the whole scores announcement and just needed a horizontal surface to drop himself on.

Number three: Why was the former world champion, Nathan Chen talking to him?

“But I think that knee slide on the short was like so cool too and-”

Did his curls always look like that? Would they be as soft as they seemed to be?

Shoma wanted to find out. Desperately.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted Yuzuru finally making his appearance, the screams around the stadium kind of gave it away anytime he showed up anywhere. Shoma had given up searching for him, he just looked around and either he instantly spotted a crowd or some screaming. It never failed. Still, this was not a good time and somehow, he wished he hadn’t spotted them, so he just waited as he walked towards them, looking like an excited meerkat looking for his next prey, no doubt coming to give some wise words of wisdom to Nathan or some comforting hug to Shoma.

He knew the idiot always listened closely to his scores, no matter how bad or how good they were... In the beginning, it unnerved him, and only after some years he finally understood why he did it, and even though he would never admit it, it felt good to have someone watching your back.  And Yuzuru had always kept an eye on him. Without fail.

But, he knew that the first option was the most probable one. Yuzuru knew that the kid worshipped the ground he walked on. So, he would take advantage of that and show off. Like usual.

Still, that would mean Nathan’s attention would no longer be only on him any longer.

Without moving, he looked at Yuzuru creeping up behind Nathan, and with one single glance he conveyed a very simple message:

‘Interrupt us and your body will never be found.’

Nathan never noticed a thing as he kept babbling about cantilevers and spread eagles, but Yuzuru silently tiptoed back and disappeared into the backstage. Javier must be somewhere in there from what he had heard. Or maybe he would be waiting back at his hotel.

Shoma didn’t really care at the moment. Not when the boy in front of him didn’t stop showering him with praises that he wasn’t even sure he deserved.

Still, this was Nathan Chen. The freaking World Champion, noticing Shoma and his disastrous programs at these cursed Championships.

“So yeah…that was what I wanted to say and humn...am I being annoying?” Shoma had almost missed Nathan’s nervous smile as the boy tried to make himself small in front of him, his hands twisting the top of his costume in random knots.

“No, no you not annoy me!” he almost shouted back, cursing his lack of composure and grasp of the English language. On the other hand, he was glad he couldn’t make a fool of himself and fanboy right in front of the American champion without a proper barrier.

His answer seemed to calm him down and he finally stopped chewing his bottom lip, which was becoming unhealthy for Shoma’s heartbeat, “I’m glad, cuz’ I know I talk a lot and like…most people just want me to shut up and skate and do my jumps…so I always think I talk too much…”

Shoma had an inkling who was the one behind Nathan’s insecurities and his insides started to boil, who would mess up with the kid’s mind like that? People were not jumping machines and they carried so much more inside them than the ability to jump perfect quads and show a perfect smile.

Nathan Chen carried it all. The perfect skating technique, so different from the other skaters but so like himself, the beauty and the grace of a dancer and the gentleness and intelligence that made the young man everything that he was. Everything that had attracted Shoma to him in the first place.

“You don’t talk too much, I like you talking.”

He had nothing to lose really, and he was way too tired to filter his every word. For a moment he felt like letting go, consequences be damned. They couldn’t really take much more from him at this point anyway.

“Oh…I’m glad…humn so, will you be doing any ice shows this summer?”

“Yes, I have Prince of Ice World, why?”

“Aren’t you part of Stars on Ice and All That Skate? What about The Ice? You’re not going…?”

He saw how his face instantly fell and his eyes dimmed. God, he did remind him of a kicked puppy. Shoma was in fact invited to Kim Yuna’s ice show, and to all of those ice shows, but right now, he feared that he could barely remember his own last name. But freaking Nathan Chen knew which Ice Shows he would be attending?

“Yes, I’m going too. Sorry, I forget.”

“Oh, that’s okay! You must be tired and I’m keeping you here, I’m sorry I didn’t think…I’m-”

“It’s okay, I’m just sleepy…”

“Like always.” Shoma’s heart backflipped in his chest. Did Nathan actually notice his perpetual sleepy state? Had he been looking at him? Was he asleep already and this was all a dumb dream?

“Yes, so you must be special if I awake and listening.” Who would have thought that lack of sleep also brought out Shoma’s courage?

“Right…humn…I will see you in Osaka then?”

Nathan’s eyes looked so hopeful, yet waiting to be dismissed at any moment, it broke Shoma’s heart to see such a thing, “Yes, I can’t wait to see you there.”

“Really?”

“Really,” he was about to add something else, but someone from his team was already calling him back, by the accent he instantly knew that it was Rafael the one looking for his golden boy.

He wondered if Nathan would ever reconsider his choice of a coach. He didn’t even need him at this point, Nathan was basically coaching himself while studying at Yale. Hell, he would be glad if he trained alongside Yuzuru back in Toronto.

Shoma would love Yuzuru’s reaction, he would either die or be overjoyed at the prospect of having some young skater to lecture on a daily basis. Since Jun was clearly out of fucks to give back in the TCC and didn’t seem very keen to be even compared to the Japanese drama queen.

But it would make Shoma extremely happy to see Nathan surrounded by people that actually cared for him as a human being and more than just a tool for success.

Having his best friend and his crush training together might result in future chaos, but oh well.

Before Nathan could slip away from him, Shoma threw his hand forward and caught his wrist. The younger one looked startled but didn’t take another step further, his face completely red at the simple contact, “Maybe I could teach you that cantilever you like so much.”

Nathan’s smile was blinding, “Maybe that’s a plan.”

  

* * *

 


End file.
